FAU Pine Jog Environmental Education Center has successfully developed an educational component of the Florida Orchid Restoration program called OrKids. Students engage in learning about the importance of plants in native ecosystems while actively collecting data on orchids they grow in their schools’ botany lab. Lessons learned will be shared.

Empowering diverse youth and adults towards environmental action is vital to building resilient communities. But, to what degree do citizen environmental efforts in environmental action programs make a collective ecological and community impact? We quantified the impacts of 167 conservation efforts by intergenerational partnerships in UCONN’s Natural Resources Conservation Academy.

We introduce the STEM Identity Profile Instrument, an inventory-style survey that yields a combination of E-STEM related affiliations (altruist, conservationist, tinkerer, designer, inventor, and investigator). We used the instrument during out-of-school, E-STEM learning to shape curricular design and study how youth made sense of their E-STEM-linked identity work.

Teens worldwide are using their creative voices to inspire awareness and action for our blue planet. Hear how Bow Seat’s Ocean Awareness Contest provides a space for youth—10,000 and counting—to artistically explore environmental issues, and to amplify their voices to advance dialogue and participation in ocean conservation.

Connecting place, people and story, through the design of inclusive outdoor spaces for schools, communities, and parks. Designing with the 8 senses and the Autism Design Guidelines to allow for collaboration and connections with nature in an educationally intentional way. Discuss types of outdoor space that afford learning for all age groups, nimble spaces with inter-related programming. All of course from the perspective of a landscape architect.

How can we promote environmental civic action in non-western countries? We analyzed factors influencing on civic action and attempted to use the results for designing program of environmental education (EE). We will discuss how to design programs in collaboration with researchers and teachers to promote EE for civic action.

For 20 years, School of the Wild has provided weeklong wildlife experiences for students in the Iowa City Community School District. Join our panel to hear how we went from an exploratory pilot to a districtwide program serving all students. Let our team’s experience help you grow your programs.

Whether we throw it, recycle it, or flush it AWAY, how do we inspire people to think about solid waste? In this hands-on workshop, we will connect participants to proven techniques in teaching about solid waste issues and the importance of saving our natural resources.

Come learn about Rhode Island’s statewide survey of K-12 educators and the successful partnerships that were informed by the results. Development and implementation of the tool will be shared. Consider how to conduct a similar inventory of current practices and leave with access to the survey for your own organization.

This session discusses “Science Strikes Back” (SSB), an annual, all-ages community science fair held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. SSB increases access to environmental education for diverse students in urban settings through place-based, community-oriented programming. The session will highlight SSB’s successes and suggestions for best practices in environmental education.